Home improvement projects - garden works

We regularly and continually maintain our home. Before the rainy season, we made sure our roof was in great condition and that the drainage system is not clogged with leaves and other stuff from the trees surrounding our home (including those of our neighbors - e.g., fire tree and bamboo leaves are quite problematic).  A persistent issue is our garden, particularly where the grass don't seem to be thriving any time of the year. One reason mentioned by most people is the presence of our mango tree whose flowers and leaves generate acidic fluids that effectively kill the grass. The constant shade also somewhat affects grass growth. And so we decided to extend the brick paving to these areas where its always muddy especially during the long wet season.

Garden work area - the bricks can be expensive so a tip is to purchase them from the makers themselves. There's one located among the garden/plant shops along Commonwealth Avenue past the junction with Regalado. It's worth it because the price of a brick there is 1/4 of what we canvassed in stores around our area. It turns out that many of these purchase from those makers and put a hefty profit margin on the bricks.

The bricks are porous and so with typical rains, the waters just seep into the ground. Runoff will also mostly be absorbed but excess water will travel to our drainage system. The paved areas also provide opportunities to more seating areas where we can enjoy the outdoors (maybe with a drink and some snacks). Here is the area after it was paved:

Finished paving with new seating area (tambayan) - we also cleaned the small bamboo grove at the corner. It turned out that there were a lot we were able to harvest and use for fencing parts of the garden from our active dogs.

The new seating area in the evening. It could also be used as a work space or perhaps where you can take some personal calls.

Next on the list of 'to-dos' will be revitalizing the grass. Our garden has frog grass but weeds and the introduction of other grass types like carabao grass and bermuda grass (likely brought in by the numerous birds in our area) threatens the "integrity" of our garden. I don't mind the carabao grass but the bermuda grass can be quite aggressive in taking over wide areas (not just patches) of our garden. We actually used it to address soil erosion but that's for another article. :)

-